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Originally Posted by Aaron W.
Yeah. If determinism is true, my consciousness is just as much consciousness as a rock rolling down a hill, or a tree choosing the direction in which to grow its roots.
But isn't the whole point of undertermination that all observable phenomena are equally compatible with both accounts? So clearly the phenomenon you are labelling 'consciousness' would still exist, it simply wouldn't meet the criteria you apply for consciousness, being that 'consciousness' is for you somehow inextricably tied to LFW.
You can accept the existence of deterministic processes, right? Assuming LFW, is a wager that I place on the unknown outcome of a deterministic process 'meaningless'? And if not, why not?
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I would simply say that "meaning" is the "content" of the words being used. My point is that there is no "content" in a deterministic universe.
Well then this is a problem, because your understanding of 'meaning' differs radically from mine. I don't consider 'meaning' to have any validity except with respect to the drives that result in its attachment and the responses that attachment provokes in others. As in, Abner observes that it is wet, and produces the speech act
It is raining. Receipt of this speech by Bella provokes in her the internal state of awareness that it is wet. The sounds or symbols we use to produce 'It is raining' do not have any innate meaning or 'content', and this holds true whether LFW exists or not. The process of attachment and provocation likewise holds true whether LFW exists or not.
The above is simplified and intends only to demonstrate that the 'loss of meaning' you impute to a deterministic worldview does not necessarily follow.
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If so, then I don't know where the confusion is. You see that you are necessarily redefining words in a deterministic world so that they carry a different meaning than what we *intend* for them to mean when we use them. This redefinition of terms is not limited to just "evaluation" but the entire dictionary. But if I accept this, I don't know if I'm saying anything at all.
Can you explain what is different about the word 'saucepan' in a deterministic universe as compared to a LFW universe?